Jade Garden, London

Returning to one of the few reasons why we started DT, I’ll be talking about Jade Garden, one of the better-known and traditional dim sum joints. I visited on saturday, and as I walked through the restaurant, it hit me how awesomely old fashioned the interior looked, with dark brooding colours that you’d see in a chinese restaurant of the 90s. Not that I was complaining. Something that chinese restaurants cant seem to excel on nowadays is the interior design, well… that’s unless you are Yauatcha with an endless dispensible budget!

The dimsum list was extensive, and with a whole table of people, we were able to order over two dozen dim sum dishes which ranged from Scallop Siu Mai, to Prawn Dumplings in Spicy Soup as well as Turnip Croquettes. Each dish arrived freshly deep fried, or steaming in their wooden “long” container. And you can taste the difference: the dim sum has actually been made fresh. (Being Chinese, you develop an ability to taste whether dim sum, such as the cheung fun with fried dough are made fresh). We ordered so many that the little towers of dim sum started to surround each of our personal spaces! All the more convenient to just pick out all the food you want though, I say…

At reasonable prices starting at £1.90 and slightly more expensive for the steamed rice dishes with pork ribs and chicken feet, it came to about £7.50 for each of us. Not bad I’d say since we’re used to paying almost £10 for a similar meal… though I put that down to guys eating so much more and making it incredibly unfair for us!

I used to eat regularly at Lido, with cheap prices without compromising on quality of dim sum, however I sincerely recommend a visit for some traditional dim sum at Jade Garden though. Probably a destination I’ll be taking my parents to show them not all hope is lost on Chinese restaurants in the recession! I have heard the prices can rocket up for dinner, as it is, after all, a seafood restaurant. And we all know what “seasonal prices” mean…

London Jade Garden Chinese Restaurant
翠園魚翅海鮮酒家
15 Wardor St., London W1V 3HD
Tel: 020-74375065
http://www.londonjadegarden.co.uk/

All things Vietnamese: BANH MI

For those who commute, and think about food first thing in the morning (like me)… you’ll have noticed an article in the food section of Metro today on Viet Baguette, a joint on Goodge Street serving the Vietnamese special.

To be honest, I was quite surprised that there was a place serving banh mi in London. In the current crunch, a place that opens for only 4 hours and only MONDAY-FRIDAY? It’s like saying “I’m doing so well, I have weekends off!”. How awesome is that?!

Foie Gras Banh Mi @ Ho Chi Minh City

Anyway, I reminisced about having banh mi in Ho Chi Minh on my holiday there during the summer. Filled with foie gras, pork meat, and the brilliant Vietnamese basil and herbs/salad; you’ll have to excuse how different yet how gorgeous these little bites can be. I take that back, they’re not bites. They are your equivalent to Pret A Manger baguettes, and although I proclaim myself to be the Number #1 fan of Pret, nothing can be quite as exciting as having baguettes that are not french/english/Subway.

I’ll be heading over to Goodge Street sometime. Hope you do too. According to Metro, the lemongrass meatballs and pork floss banh mi is quite the steal. At 5pounds each, I’ll have to see… And let’s argue if it’s authentic or not.

Viet Baguette
14 Charlotte Place,
London W1T 1SW.

Open: Monday to Friday
12noon-4pm

Hello.

S has been hard working at this blog.
B has been not hard working with this blog.

And now I am back on blogging! Spent the whole summer in Hong Kong, with two weeks in foodie Taiwan, and it was amazing to be in the heat and constantly with food around me. Seriously Hong Kong is no doubt a gastronomical city!! My plan is to slowly post about my holiday foodie events slowly overtime.

But hello!

Flickr food browsing

… is a dangerous sport. You tend to want with extreme longingness, when you see food that you can’t touch (nor taste). Usually the case whtn flickr opens you to the big worldwide web, and you’re probably looking at food from across the world. Take this for example:

Eggs on toast by SeetYing

Koko Black, Melbourne [GUEST POST]

Katie continues her chocolate adventures for us…

Next stop: Koko Black.  Slightly more elegant surroundings, more sophisticated looking menu, more expensive price tag.  Was it worth the extra money?  The chocolate counter was a feast for the eyes only, as I was not going to fork out $1.85 for EACH chocolate!  I wanted to try the diamond cut shaped ‘Dulce de Leche’, ‘Mango & Vanilla’, ‘Chai Tea’ and the ‘Aurelia’ champagne truffle (and many more)!

We ordered the Belgian set for two: chocolate cake, a scoop of chocolate ice cream, a cup of chocolate mousse, a shortbread biscuit, two chocolates (we dropped one on the floor – about $2 gone there) and two drinks (hot/cold chocolate).  This cost the same as a proper meal, if not more, but I think you have to try everything at least once in life.

Max Brenner, Melbourne [GUEST POST]

Katie’s a friend of ours, and ever since she went to Melbourne in July, she keeps uploading these amazing photos of food in the Australian counties. Much jealousy. So she’s kind enough to write and make us even more envious

Being an avid fan of the tofufa blog, I admired Dana and Vivi’s continuous adventures of food exploration.  I’m not much of a writer so was surprised when asked to guest blog, to write something about my Melbourne food travels, having been here as an exchange student since July.  Put aside all the new and exciting things and people I’ve met at university here, I want to get straight to the good food part.

There lies in Melbourne a strong café and coffee culture.  With the recent opening of the Lindt Chocolate Café on Collins St (there are branches in Sydney too), chocolate has been all the hype here.  There are several other strong competitors:  Max Brenner, Koko Black, Chocolateria San Churro, Brunetti…  Most of these are franchises, but don’t be mistaken, franchise does not by any means lower the standards.  These cafes have an extensive beverage menu (hot and cold, almost all involving chocolate) and if you’re hungry there are plenty of mouth-watering chocolate desserts to choose from…

All things Vietnamese: Rice Paper, Hong Kong

Continuing on from All things Vietnamese, and this being a long overdue review post, it’s time for me to tell you how Hong Kong make Vietnamese food.

After being told by our initial Vietnamese restaurant that we’d have to turn over our table within an hour, we decided on Rice Paper, it’s neighbouring Vietnamese instead – which was still in the Harbour City vicinity. Shown to a table just a few feet from the entrance, at first, I was precarious. But it turned out to be a great night.

from telepathicgeorge on flickr

How YOU doin’?

Central Perk… in London.

F R I E N D S ~ 15th anniversary.

A pop-up cafe serving you free Lattae, Cappuccino, Cafe Au Lait etc. to celebrate the occasion, just off of Carnaby Street, on Broadwick Street. Directions are on the website. You’ll be forgoing a brief, but wonderful chance to see some awesome memorabilia from the sitcom. Anyone want some Mockalate???

I’ll be seeing you there… well, until 7th October.

Asakusa (浅草), London

This small restaurant in Camden is quite a haunt for Japanese people, as well as those trying to have some authentic Japanese food. I’ve heard mostly good words about this place, bad words being: don’t get caught in the basement! (Apparently if you don’t reserve a table early, this is where you’ll get stuck.)

Well I arrived five minutes before business started, and the moment they turned the OPEN CLOSE sign, I went in to reserve a table for 30 minutes later. The guy at the bar had to look long and hard at his reservations book, before allowing me a sigh of relief when he said there was a free table, until 8. You are wondering, what’s the big deal? The deal is, if you don’t book your table ahead, you’ll probably be turned away. Asakusa only opens from 6-11pm Monday to Saturdays. You can see why it’s hot property.

I don’t have many photos from the night, so let’s go on words only. The menu was quite extensive, but I’d heard that a set dinner and some appetizers would quite suffice for a meal. The list of appetizers is 2 pages back-to-back, and included dishes like soft shelled crab, Nasu Dengaku (deep fried eggplant with miso sauce) to the standard Gyoza.

What pleased me most was my beautiful Tonkatsu! I’m sure you’ve heard that some people like to assess a chef’s ability by whether they can cook a simple dish well. Sorry, that’s not me. I just love Tonkatsu Don. It had just been deep fried, and was served with the sauce in a separate jug, as well as the rice, miso soup and salad. At reasonable prices, and with a lot of choice, the set dinners are definitely a good place to start when ordering. Recommended.

Asakusa
265 Eversholt Street,
Camden, London.
NW1 1BA

Alright, Cupcake?

It’s National Cupcake Week (14-19th September 2009) and I wouldn’t let this go by silently, especially having just baked a fresh batch of cupcakes – my third in the past month. And if you’re wondering – it’s in preparation for my birthday cupcakes I will be baking in a few weeks. Just like the saying goes: practice makes perfect!

So if I’ve noticed the new trend in cupcakes, you must have too. With budding bakers catching on on the cupcake fashion, it’s no wonder that Vogue X Selfridges ‘Fashion’s Night Out’ had Primrose Bakery make exclusive Vogue cupcakes!